Shortly after 9/11, British documentary maker Jasmine Dellal began filming a diverse band of musicians on tour across North America. They came from Spain, Macedonia, Romania and India and made a special kind of music – so special that Dellal began shooting in India using her Mastercard as principal backer until a grant came through. The six-week tour was punctuated by a wedding, a funeral, an impromptu fishing expedition that caught the attention of local police – and a tale of deep friendships forged on a tour bus, as it made its way across a country shocked to the core by the World Trade Center attacks. Angela Meredith spoke to Jasmine Dellal about ‘Gypsy Caravan/When the Road Bends’ and the power of music to overcome adversity.
The UK has the character of Del Trotter from TV’s Only Fools and Horses to thank for raising awareness of Romani culture.
Del’s favourite catchphrase “cooshtie” is the Romani word for “good”.
Filmmaker Jasmine Dellal is quick to admit she is not Roma herself. Born in Britain, she owes her own dramatic beauty to her Iraqi, Polish and Jewish heritage.
She spent much of her time in India as a child and recalls an early childhood nursery rhyme that inspired in her a longing “to run away with the Gypsies”.
Her work on Marlon Riggs’ final feature Black Is…Black Ain’t helped crystallise a fascination begun in childhood, when she discovered a book about the Romani people.
The result was her film American Gypsy – as well as her latest feature-length documentary Gypsy Caravan (or When the Road Bends, depending on where you live in the world).
The fact that – together with legendary cinematographer Albert Maysles of Gimme Shelter fame – she shot 200 hours of footage for Gypsy Caravan suggests she is, like many others, completely bewitched by Romani culture.
She denies total obsession, however, eschewing “dressing like a Gypsy” and preferring to concentrate on the telling the story of the five bands who embarked on the 2001 US tour, organised by the World Music Institute.
Two of the bands (Fanfare Ciocarlia and Taraf de Haïdouks) come from Romania, the Antonio el Pipa Flamenco Ensemble are from Jerez de la Frontera in Spain, Esma Redzepova and musicians are from Macedonia – and Maharaja come from Rajasthan in India and feature Harish, one of the only two dancers in the world to perform the spellbinding Rajasthani knee dance.
Gypsy music from India is long considered to be the father of the genre, although all the styles have a distinct character, from flamenco to fanfare – a mixture of brass and wind music with vocals.
The story cuts in between the daily routine and nightly shows of the tour – as seen through the voiced-over stage directions of the affable tour manager George – and excursions to the musicians’ homelands.
One theme is constant – that of family. During the six-week tour, we become guests at a wedding, mourners at a funeral and participate in the small daily struggles to survive in a culture that is mostly excluded from mainstream society.
Jasmine says that, despite life in the cramped confines of the tour bus, the group gelled together and the trip was remarkably peaceful.
“I am sure there were tensions I wasn’t aware of,” she admits. “And there were things people were not comfortable about because it was just after 9/11 and many of the musicians were Muslim.
“There was a time everyone was asked to get off the plane, and in the end a couple got off because they weren’t comfortable with flying with such a ‘strange’ group of people.”
The film also shows an incident in which a crew member – himself Rom –
discovers written in the hotel guest book the plea, “Watch for the Gypsys (sic). They look scary and they look at you funny. God save me from the Gypsys.”
Jasmine says such incidents were met with laughter, usually – “but poignant laughter”.
In editing the film, she tried to put across how the group would laugh at incidents that were painful. This, she admitted, was difficult to achieve while still trying to maintain the seriousness of the issues.
The scenes spent in each of the band’s hometowns – often small villages – drive home the reason why many of the group take to the road with their music: money for their communities.
The oldest musician, Nicolae Neascu of the group Taraf de Haïdouks, supports his own community in Romania, sending one grandchild to music college in Bucharest “so she can learn”.
He teaches the other children in the community the basics of music at his knee – and though being a huge star, lives by himself in a small room painted egg yolk yellow. At 78, he still longs to hold a woman in his arms and wonders if he ever will again. He would also like a swimming pool like Johnny Depp’s.
It is easy to become hooked on the romance of the story, while glossing over the importance of what this group of people are achieving in taking their music to the world.
Esma Redzepova from Macedonia received the title Queen of the Gypsies in 1976. She has raised 47 adopted children, some of whom travel with her on the road. A huge star in her own country and globally – one US fan travels 500 miles for her autograph – she has been nominated for the Nobel Prize more than once and works with Romani refugees and fights against prejudice.
Esma was the first Gypsy in Macedonia to marry a gadjo or non-Gypsy: she was already a celebrity when aged 13 she unwillingly wed her musician husband Stevo on the insistence of her mother.
“I fell in love with him afterwards,” she smiles – but means it.
“Love is more than words,” she says. “It is what you do for somebody. Love to me is honesty.”
She and Flamenco star Juana la del Pipa are rightfully the divas of the film.
Juana’s bronzed lamentations of duende – ‘spirit’ – pour forth honey from the bitterness of experience, a sense of exclusion and love.
Her nephew Antonio el Pipa is a macho, strutting flamenco star by night – and a tender husband and father missing his wife and children by day.
“Flamenco is the Gypsy people’s way of showing their feelings,” he says. “What defines me most as an artist is being a Gypsy.
“But I don’t know if being a Gypsy makes me different.”
By the end of the tour, the group is beginning to communicate in broken English and the different styles of music begin to fuse: the Maharaja group takes to flamenco and the final show features all the musicians jamming happily together on stage.
(Cut to producers across the States sampling and mixing as fast as they can.)
History has dictated that Roma today are scattered all over the world – but 10 million gypsies still share a common culture and language.
Jasmine Dellal is fierce in her defence of the Romani people – and enlisted the help of Johnny Depp in putting their case on screen.
Depp had previously spent several months filming with many of the musicians and responded immediately to her request to appear, she says.
Jasmine is currently trying to set up screening of the film in Romania with subtitles to assist Romani activists, but admits she will not be revisiting the group cinematically.
“But it is one of my big goals with the film for it to entertain and for people to start paying attention to who Roma are around them. We are trying to put together handouts at the screenings so people can find out who Roma are in the UK.”
Gypsy historian Simon Evans says that, in Kent and the southeast counties of England, Roma represent the largest ethnic minority group. Anglo-Roma are also recognised under the Race Relations Act.
Jasmine says that her 12 years of film making with Roma helped her come to terms with her own curiosity about background and identity “and feeling you belong everywhere and nowhere”.
But it took her four or five years to understand some of the culture and language and feel accepted.
Life magazine writer Linda Gomez gave her a valuable piece of advice when she began working with Roma, she says.
“Be yourself.”
Roma everywhere are still looking forward to the day when they, too, can be just that.
I want to live my life with dignity,” says Esma. “Roma have never gone to war or occupied anyone’s country.”
Gypsy Caravan/When the Road Bends opened on September 28 in the UK.
